Lacroix, meet Van Noten

Dries Van Noten SS20
Fashion | 27 September 2019
Above:

Model wears an outfit , as part of the pret a porter 2020, fashion week, Paris, France, from the house of Dries Van Noten

“I found myself needing exuberance, opulence, another volume and fun!” Belgian designer Dries Van Noten said in conversation with journalist Susannah Frankel about his SS20 collection. To source these elements he so desperately sought, he enlisted the aid of esteemed French couturier Christian Lacroix (major collab alert!). Longtime fans of each others’ work, the two designers fused their similar interests and disparate abilities together to create an incredible in-your-face offering that was somewhere between ready-to-wear and haute couture.

An expert in constructing modern silhouettes, Van Noten’s talents can be seen in the form of the pieces while Lacroix’s ostentatious aesthetic comes out in the fabric choice. A graphic-print white t-shirt was paired with a flaming-orange tiger-print skirt, while a militant-style high-collar tunic was decorated with glittering buttons along its front. In regard to outer layers, boxy cropped jackets felt authoritative, matador jackets were exquisitely detailed, and a pillar-box-red trench coat covered in metallic gold brocade somehow managed to stand out from the crowd.

This was a collection that was part 80s and part eighteenth century, all at once. Structural dresses were adorned with epaulettes, while vintage-style knits were covered in fluorescent florals for a nod to the age of garish colours and Gameboys. “We have lost maybe the joy of dressing up, of playing with fashion, combining many different things,” Van Noten continued. “That to me was very important, it was important to bring that back.” And with the help of Lacroix, that he did.

GALLERYCatwalk images from Dries Van Noten WSS20





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